Unfortunately, hidden is not a property that is animatable through UIView animations. I think your best bet may be to use one of the animations @Erik B suggested, or start dabbling with Core Animations which are much more powerful. Take a glance at the documentation for UIView animations and Core Animations.

I achieved something like what your suggesting by using UIView animations to slide the new view from below another view. This made it appear like a drawer sliding out. If you want to do something like that, you need to intercept the touch up inside event and place the animation code there.